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12.26.2010

On December 23rd we got some sad news about Super Meat Boy for Wiiware. Team Meat announced via Twitter that "there will not be a Wiiware version of SMB. we are looking in to retail Wii, bit its also looking grim. still looking though."

It may have been sad news for everyone to hear right before the Holidays and for all the Wii owners that were looking forward to the game releasing on their little white console. It's been a know fact that Team Meat was working on attempting to squeeze the game down to the ridiculously small 40MB size limit that Nintendo imposes on all Wiiware games. But in the end it was decided that too much was going to be sacrificed from the game and instead of releasing a gimped version, they have opted to not release it at all on Wiiware.

There is a small chance that the game may make a retail release on Wii, but according to Team Meats statements from Twitter it's not looking so great either.

Would you have liked to see a Wiiware version of the SMB regardless if the game was not a complete version?

Do you think Nintendo's 40MB size limit on Wiiware is hurting the service?

12.21.2010

Well you're in luck! Dead Space 2 has a Demo, and it's available right NOW on XBL, and PSN!

If you've never played Dead Space, it's either because you've never heard of it, or because you were too scared to continue playing it. I joke not, people refuse to finish this game because it's "too scarry". Naturally I love it. One of the best horror games I've played in a long time.

12.20.2010

We usually don't pay that much attention to the PC console, and for that we're sorry. But we are trying! Here's me trying.

Steam just released a list of games that are up for grabs on the cheep. There are quite a few gems in there, so for your PC gamer of your life, check this list out! Yes Super Meat Boy is on that list and it is only $3.75!

Also on steam SquareEnix Eidos has a big fat juicy packet of games for an insanely cheep price! Normally if you bought all of these individually you'd have to pay: 606.68. This bundle is 74.99! It includes all the updated Womb Raider games, Front Mission Evolved, Kayne and Lynch, Final Fantasy XI Collection, and well shit many many other goodies! Check out this list!

C'mon you pirates, lets encourage our developers to keep churning out good games by paying for them!

12.18.2010

I don't know if any of you remember but in Episode 26 of our podcast (with Derek Fridolfs) at some point I talked about what I really thought Super Mario Brothers was about. I received a bagful of ridicule for it!

I guess I'm not the only one that though, lookey here! - Thanks to Destructoid for digging this up for me!

12.15.2010

The Humble Indie Bundle #2 is a charity event where you get to get name your own price for five indie games and also donate to charity at the same time. The games are Mac, PC, Linux compatible and DRM free. The best part is that you can divide the money up however you wish, so if you want the developers to get your hard earn cash so be it. Want to save the children? Go for it.

You only have six days left to get the bundle, but I think it's really great deal for anyone who's been waiting to try one of these games or if your looking for a holiday gift for someone.

12.14.2010

Alright people I went the extra step this time around and recorded my own video to my hopefully re-occurring series Wiiware Demo Mondays. It's my first attempt at making a video with my shitty recording setup, so bear with me while I massage and refine it.

This weeks demo release is Lilt Line the first published game by Gaijin games. Its a simple game where you guide a line through a series of 15 tracks while hitting beats in time on the screen. The more times you hit the wall or miss a beat the less points you receive. I found the game to be rather challenging once the difficulty ramps up. The music is provided by a dubstep soundtrack and the visuals are very retro, geometric, with a bright color pallette. Go check it out and you'll be glad to know its only $5 bucks.

Next time around I'll do some more elaboration in my video, at least I lost my video virginity.

12.13.2010

It's that time of the year to reflect back on the long list of games we played in 2010. The Word of Toast is our yearly tally of all the best and worst video games we've gotten our hands on and discuss some the highlights of the year in gaming. We want to know what were some of your favorite games and memories from the last year, so speak up in the comments section.

We're also are giving away Brad's copy of NBA Jam for the Wii for our Holiday Giveaway on this particularly festive episode. If your interested in scoring a copy of the game for free, please listen up at the end of the podcast to get all the details on how to enter and win. You will have until January 8th to enter and we'll announce the winner on the podcast. The contest is only available to listeners in the lower 48 states. Sorry Hawaii, Alaska and the world.

As finally we feature the music of Lasse Gjertsen for your listening pleasure. We're off for the holiday season but we'll be returning next year, refreshed and ready for more podcasting shenanigans. Thanks for a great year and obey Metal Santa by headbanging your way through the holidays.

Shuma-Gorath is one of the oddest characters in the Marvel vs Capcom 3 line-up. He was first debuted in Marvel Super Hero's: The Fate of Two Worlds" which was one of the best god damn arcade fighters of it's time.

So why should anyone give a shit? Well for one he has tentacles. Naughty ones perhaps yes, but definitely deadly ones. If you head over to capcom-unity they have a really awesome deal going on.

Apparently they had the community members vote on different designs for their awesome pre-order gift. They called it "Marvel vs Capcom Waste of Flesh t-shirt". I personally really like this design a lot, and am going to be pre-ordering this for the t-shirt!

To order and receive this amazing t-shirt click on the "store" button on the top there. Or just click here... Jeez you lazy bast....

12.11.2010

The developer Retro studios has once again cradled one of Nintendo's biggest franchises in its bosom and raised a fantastic game. The last year has been a banner year for platformers on the Wii and the 2D platformer genre in general. Games like New Super Mario Bros, Super Meat Boy and Donkey Kong help prove that its still one the best game designs around and with the right team, can compete with anything 3D games have to offer. I wanted to give you guys a quick roundup of my thoughts so far about the game and what you can expect if this game is on your radar.

It's just a 2D platformer why should you care?
Retro Studios seems to be Nintendo's ace in the hole and boy they don't disappoint. Granted this game doesn't have the same 3D rendered graphics like the originals, but it does have beautifully animated colorful characters and environments. Donkey Kong Country Returns level design is fantastic and offers tons of secrets to find, challenging platforming, and creative uses of the levels environments to effect gameplay. Each level in the game seems to be always asking you to do something a little different and each level feels fresh. Your also going to be in for a challenge; in the first world alone I died at least 10 times and didn't even come close to finding all the KONG letters and puzzle pieces in each level. Oh yeah, did I mention that each level also has a time attack mode as well? In case you looking for more of a challenge. The game can be difficult at times, but the game does offer you lots of ways to make it easier on yourself by adding checkpoints and banana coins. With the banana coins you go to old Kranky Kongs shack and purchase extra balloons, a puzzle revealing parrot, and invincibility juice. Much like Mario Bros 3, you access them on the main map and use them before you enter levels.

12.08.2010

If you're like me you're probably pretty sick of Tomb Raider. Especially if you've actually played any of them before "Lara Croft and the Guardians of Light" -- which sounds dangerously close to a Harry Potter title.

Well they aren't done with her yet. In fact they've unbraided her hair, muddied up her face, and taken years off her life with this next reboot. All we have to go off of is this image:

You have a smudge of dirt right... no... no... there! no wait there's more.

Apparently we're going to learn all about Lara's past, and how she came to be the treasure hunter we all know, but not all love. This one will be called "Lara Croft: The Evolution". As of right now those are all the details we get, but it is interesting to me (keep an eye here for updates).

12.07.2010

I wanted to get this up yesterday but my day job got in the way. But I want to come back every Monday and feature the new Wiiware demos that were released since Nintendo is incapable of doing that on its own for some reason. So far Nintendo is offering one new demo a week for a total of 4 demos being featured in the Nintendo channels main homepage at one time. If you want to find previous releases demos your going to have to dig into the "Newest Additions" section of Wiiware. Good luck with that.

12.06.2010

This weeks episode is exactly what the the strapline says. Danny joins the podcast and answers a ton of questions about his work, Super Meat Boy, and reveals some of his upcoming projects. If you haven't checked out Danny's website at dBsoundworks.bandcamp.com, go do it now!

On top of all that, we had to take a few minutes to talk about the monumental discovery of a new life form by NASA scientists that lives off poison and highlight a new augmented reality device the TagCandy. It uses a lollipop and your tongue to deliver you the sensation and sounds of fireworks. Yes, it sounds completely ludicrous, but oh man is it fun to joke about. And finally we play an encore of our joke intro song created by Souleye (Magnus Palsson). Thanks again Magnus.

If you got something you want to talk about or have some music to share with us, feel free to drop us an email or post in the comments section. Enjoy this weeks TOAST!

12.05.2010

Chalk this one up into the "Is this for real?" category. TagCandy is a device built by Yasuaki Kakehi of Keio University. The device consists of a handheld base with a speaker and a senor built into the top of it. Then you place a ordinary lollipop into the top of the device and whalla your living in the future baby. Once you place the delectible candy in your mouth and begin to er... you know, suck the candy. The sensor will pick up your movements and the device with play one of many different sounds, such as firework or biting an apple for instance. The speaker vibrates and through that you can either feel the sound on your tongue and through bone-conduction technology, you will hear the sound by touching the candy to your teeth. There are plans in the future to add more functionality to its repertoire such as biting recognition and the ability to share sensations over the internet. We all know what happens when we get the internet involved into such things don't we ;- ). There is a nice video clip here that highlights this wonderful technology.

Take a good hard look fellow gamers. Could this vision of augmented reality be the next leap in video games? Nintendo needs to step up its game in order to take us to the next level and I don't think the Vitality Sensor is going to do it. I can see it now, Wii2 comes packed with Nintendo themed lollipops. Can you imagine the combination of Wiimote technology and mouth sensations! Satoru Iwata I'm talking to you. I've always wondered what if felt like to stomp on goombas in my mouth. God, that sounds oh so wrong.

What do you think of this new augmented reality technology? The future or another WTF device?

12.03.2010

Screw Blackops and heck, screw Activision. The Battlefield Bad Comapany 2 Vietnam DLC Map pack can be yours for $15 dollars (ack its a little pricey) and you can skip the $60 dollar investment for another Call of Duty yearly rehash. Also if you have the VIP access code from when you purchased the game you will get it all for free. As you can see from the video below your getting the same Battlefield with a nice 60's vibe makeover. Your going to get 5 maps: Hill 137, Vantage Point, Phu Bai Valley, Cao Son Temple, and the Battle of Hastings along with some new vehicles. I'm not advocating that the Vietnam war was a fantastic time in history, but throw some good multiplayer antics and I'm sold.

I've come late to the party when it comes to being a fan of Battlefield Bad Company 2, but overall I've think its offers something I don't see in a lot of first person shooters nowadays, teamwork. The game has a good balance of gameplay elements that work really well in a multiplayer arena. If you've haven't tried a match online, do yourself a service and give it a go, I'll take you on. My PSN name is IanAugust.

What do you think of the Battlefield series? Do you think the DLC is too expensive?

Destructoid just posted up video footage of what seems to be the long rumored Sony Playstation Ericson phone. Here check this shit out.

If you listen to the podcast regularly you would know that my poor phone is mostly broken, and have been waiting for something new to encourage me to buy a new phone. This may be it guys... seriously, but I don't know how they could do this right.

I'm on the fence about it because logic tells me that if they are going to be using the Android OS, I don't think they'll be able to just release a bunch of Playstation brand exclusive games onto it because then it would become available to all Android phones. Unless somehow they can make their own game store that only works on this particular phone.

Anyway discuss if you care, and shit even if you don't care I'd like to hear what anyone thinks!

12.01.2010

Monster Hunter has become very dear to me as you all must know. It's probably very annoying by now I'm sure. But apparently I'm not the only one - Streets were lined with people in Japan looking to buy Monster Hunter Portable 3rd yesterday.

There is however a new game coming out by none other than SquareEnix. It's their version of a Monster Hunter type game, which is why I'm very interested in playing this game. Another interesting thing about it is all the artists they have contracted for character design:

Tetsuya Nomura (best known for his work on Final Fantasy, Parasite Eve, Kingdom Hearts, The World Ends with You, and Brave Fencer Musashi)

This Line up proves impressive! I'm excited to see what SquareEnix will do with this game. It also boasts one feature that most people have been wanting out of the Monster Hunter games - a lock on button.

I recently picked up Goldeneye for Wii and have been having a pretty good time with it. Our friend Coffee has enticed me to play some online matches with him and has provided some footage of the multiplayer mayhem so you can get an idea of what its like to play the game online.

Now as you can see from the footage that this Goldeneye plays much differently from what you may remember from your prepubescent years and that's just one of many of the changes you will see in the new version of Goldeneye. It plays very much like a modern console shooter and has taken cues from some of the best FPS out there. So all of you looking for a direct port of the N64 version may be sad pandas, but rest assured this version of the game is a good one and worth your time if your a starving FPS Wii owner. Just don't expect it to be exactly how you remembered it and enjoy it.

If you want to take me on and play some online matches post your Goldeneye friend code. Yes friends codes! I hate you Nintendo.